4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun
4.5 inch Mk 8 Mod 1 naval gun on HMS Northumberland. The multi-faceted gunhouse is designed to reduce radar cross section.
Type	Naval gun
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1972 - present
Wars	Falklands war Invasion of Iraq 2003 Libya 2011
Production history
Designer	Mod 0 : Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment Mod 1 : Royal Ordnance Defence
Variants	Mod 0, Mod 1
Specifications
Barrel length	244.75 inches (6.217 m) bore (55 calibres)
Shell	Fixed QF 46 pounds (21 kg) HE
Calibre	4.45-inch (113 mm)[1]

The 4.5 inch Mark 8 is a British naval gun system which currently equips the Royal Navy's frigates and some British destroyers and frigates sold to other countries.

Background[link]

The 4.5 inch gun has been the standard medium-gun calibre of the Royal Navy for use against surface, aircraft and shore targets since 1938. The current 55-calibre Mark 8 gun replaced the World War II era 45-calibre QF 4.5 inch Mk I - V naval guns. Like all British 4.5 inch naval guns, it actually has a calibre of 4.45 inches (113 mm).^[1]

Design[link]

A completely new type of 4.5 inch gun with a longer 55-calibre barrel, it was designed in the 1960s for the Royal Navy's new classes of frigates and destroyers. The new weapon, built by Vickers^{[citation needed]}, was developed by the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment using the Ordnance, QF 105 mm L13 of the Abbot self-propelled gun as a starting point (it used electrical primers). The outer shell of the gunhouse is built from glass-reinforced plastic (GRP).

The new weapon emphasised reliability over a high rate of fire, allowing a switch to a lighter, single barrel mounting and ammunition of a one-piece design.

The gun system has a combination of electrical and hydraulic components and the full system penetrates up to three deck levels below the weather deck; deep magazine, gun control room and power room, gunbay and the gunhouse.

The weapon is semi-automatic, therefore needing fewer people than its predecessors to operate. With no personnel in the gunhouse loading is supported by personnel in the gunbay to load the feed ring and in the deep-magazine to pass ammunition to the gunbay. The Captain of the Gun in the control room ensures continued weapon readiness and the gun controller in the Operations Room operates the aiming and firing process. The weapon has a rate of fire of about 25 rounds per minute and a range of 12 nm (22 km; 27.5 km with the newer High Explosive Extended Range round).

The first recipient of the new gun and mount, the Mark 8, was the Iranian frigate Zaal in 1971. The gun entered Royal Navy service in 1973 on the new destroyer Bristol.

These guns proved to be less reliable than the older 4.5 inch Mark 6 (Mark V gun) during the Falklands War, being forced to cease fire on several occasions due to faults.^[2]

The first major modification to the mounting, the Mod 1, was developed in the late 1990s; replacing the gunhouse with a reduced radar cross section assembly and replacing the hydraulic loading mechanism with an all electric system. This particular gun has been nicknamed the "Kryten gun" by members of Royal Navy, after the odd shaped head of a robot from the British Sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf.^[3][4]

155 mm variant[link]

The Ministry of Defence is investigating a proposal from BAE Systems to "up gun" the 4.5 inch to accept the 155 mm (6.1 inch) gun barrel and breech from the AS-90 self propelled gun.^[5] This would introduce a common gun calibre with the British Army and Royal Navy, helping with ammunition logistics, and encouraging joint Army-Navy development of extended range and precision guided shells.^[6] A £4m contract has been awarded to develop a prototype, and firing trials had been scheduled for 2009.^[7]

Usage[link]

• Type 45 Daring-class air defence destroyer
• Type 23 Duke-class frigate
• Type 22 Broadsword-class frigate
• Type 21 Amazon-class frigate
• Type 42 Sheffield-class guided missile destroyer
• Type 82 destroyer, Bristol

• Niteroi class (Brazil)
• Inhauma class (Brazil)
• Alvand class (Iran)
• Dat Assawari (Libyan Navy)
• HTMS Makut Rajakumarn (Royal Thai Navy)

Gallery[link]

• 

  Spent shells from HMS Cardiff's Mod 0 gun during the Falklands War. The top of her worn Sea Dart launcher can also be seen in the bottom right corner.

• 

  The ladder to Cardiff's Mod 0 gun can be seen here, damaged by a freak wave.

• 

  HMS Sutherland's Mod 0 gun

• 

  HMS Grafton's Mod 0 gun

See also[link]

• QF 4.5 inch Mk I - V naval gun - British predecessor
• 5"/54 caliber Mark 45 gun - American equivalent to the Mark 8
• Advanced Gun System - BAE's new 155 mm long-range gun system for the US Navy's Zumwalt class destroyers

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Tony DiGiulian, British 4.5"/55 (11.4 cm) Mark 8 Mod 0 114 mm/55 (4.5") Mark 8 Mod 1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun

Harold Lee "Hal" Lindsey (born November 23, 1929) is an American evangelist and Christian writer. He is a Christian Zionist and dispensationalist author. He currently resides in Texas.

Biography[link]

He was born on November 23, 1929 to Percy Lacy Lindsey and Daisy Lee Freeman in Houston, Texas. Lindsey suspended his course of study at the University of Houston to serve in the Korean War, then worked as a Mississippi River tugboat captain.

He entered Dallas Theological Seminary in 1958 (with the help of Lt. Col. Robert Thieme, pastor of Berachah Church in Houston, which Lindsey had attended) where he studied with John F. Walvoord, author of the 1974 best-seller Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis. He graduated from Dallas with a Master of Theology, majoring in the New Testament and early Greek literature.^[1] With Jan, the second of his four wives, he worked with Campus Crusade for Christ and continued with them until 1969. He then helped a mission in Southern California which continued until 1976. He was also a frequent speaker and Sunday School teacher at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California. In 1969, he wrote his first, and most well-known book, The Late, Great Planet Earth.

Published in 1970 by Zondervan, The Late, Great Planet Earth became a bestseller. Coming on the heels of the Six-Day War, the book fueled the popularity of Dispensationalism and its support of ethnic Jews as the "chosen people of God". Many of Lindsey's later writings are sequels or revisions and extensions of his first book. In 1994, he earned his Doctorate of Theology from California School of Theology.^[2]

Lindsey hosted International Intelligence Briefing on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and serves on the executive board of Christian Voice.^[3]

International Intelligence Briefing was removed from the air on TBN for the entire month of December 2005. Lindsey claimed that this was because "some at the network apparently feel that [his] message is too pro-Israel and too anti-Muslim."^[4] TBN owner Paul Crouch, however, contended that "TBN has never been and is not now against Israel and the Jewish people."^[5] Crouch said that Lindsey's show was pre-empted for Christmas programming. Lindsey countered that this was the first time his show had been preempted for the entire month of December. TBN later admitted that a secondary reason for pre-empting the show was that it "placed Arabs in a negative light."^[6]

Lindsey resigned from TBN on January 1, 2006, and indicated that he would pursue another television ministry. His new program, The Hal Lindsey Report, is focused on Biblical prophecy and current events, and is carried on the Angel One and DayStar networks. In January 2007, Lindsey announced that he would be returning to the TBN network. The Hal Lindsey Report airs on TBN under his own financing.^[7]

He wrote in an essay on WorldNetDaily that Barack Obama was paving the way for, and demonstrating the world's readiness for, the antichrist, "Obama is correct in saying that the world is ready for someone like him — a messiah-like figure, charismatic and glib ... The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance."^[8]

Biblical Interpretations[link]

In 1970, Lindsey wrote in The Late, Great Planet Earth that the biblical prophets identified certain nations that would ally with other countries to form four major spheres of political power during the same time era that Israel would be reestablished as a nation ^[9]. Lindsey wrote that these nations and their allies can be identified as: (1) Russia and its allies, (2) China and other oriental countries, (3) Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries, and (4) an alliance of Western European nations ^[10].

Lindsey wrote that the Western European alliance is a revived form of the ancient Roman Empire, and is predicted in the books of Daniel and Revelation symbollically as ten horns or ten kings. ^[11]. Lindsey quotes from Time Magazine, July 4, 1969, that the goal of the European Economic Community, which preceded the European Union, was to establish a ten-nation economic community ^[12]. Lindsey concludes, based on this and other sources, that this alliance of Western European nations is fulfilling this prophecy and will ultimately be ruled by the Antichrist ^[13]. The European Union currently has 27 members.

Lindsey also noted that the prophets did not directly or indirectly mention the United States of America, and concluded that the U.S. would lose its leadership position on the geo-political stage by the time the Tribulation of the end times arrived ^[14].

In a later book, entitled, The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, Lindsey wrote that he felt compelled to write because "so many things have occurred" in the last ten years (since he wroteThe Late Great Planet Earth). ^[15] He believed that it was possible that the battle of Armageddon could take place in the not too distant future, stating, "the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it." ^[16]. He noted again that the U.S. is not mentioned in Bible prophecy as a leading nation and listed some scenarios that, at that time, seemed plausible to him: (1) A takeover by communists, (2) destruction by a surprise Soviet nuclear attack, and (3) becoming a dependent of the 10-nation European community.^[17] The book was on the NY Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks.

Planet Earth - 2000 A.D., published in the early 1990s, states that Christians should not plan to still be on earth by the year 2000.

Lindsey's earlier predictions all assumed that the Cold War would continue indefinitely, and had eschatological significance; he explicitly identified Russia with the apocalyptic figure of Gog. He also assumed that the 1960s counterculture would eventually become the dominant culture, and become the source of prophesied "immorality" that would lead to the establishment of a false religion.

Bibliography[link]

• The Late, Great Planet Earth
• Satan is Alive and Well On Planet Earth
• The Liberation of Planet Earth
• There's a New World Coming
• The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon
• The Final Battle
• The Terminal Generation
• Planet Earth: The Final Chapter
• Rapture
• Planet Earth - 2000 A.D.
• Apocalypse Code
• Blood Moon
• Vanished into Thin Air: the Hope of Every Believer
• The Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad

See also[link]

• Christian eschatology
• Unfulfilled religious prophecies
• Summary of Christian eschatological differences
• Christian Voice (USA)

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Hal Lindsey on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Hal Lindsey's web site
• Hal Lindsey commentaries on WorldNetDaily
• The Hal Lindsey Report at Daystar Television Network
• The Hal Lindsey Report at Trinity Broadcasting Network
• Hal Lindsey at Rapture Ready
• Hal Lindsey at the Internet Movie Database
• International Intelligence Briefing at the Internet Movie Database